babble is rabble.ca's discussion board but it's much more than that: it's an online community for folks who just won't shut up. It's a place to tell each other — and the world — what's up with our work and campaigns.

The political crisis in Ottawa has placed sovereignty at the centre of the Quebec election campaign, reviving nationalist fervour and creating uncertainty in Liberal Leader Jean Charest's election campaign.

Former Parti Québécois leader Jacques Parizeau, one of the most fervent defenders of Quebec independence, weighed into the debate as he applauded the Bloc Québécois' support of the proposed coalition government, arguing that it represented "huge gains" for Quebec.

Mr. Parizeau told Le Journal de Montréal that the political crisis in Ottawa would "once again place sovereignty back on the agenda."

The comments will likely fuel Prime Minister Stephen Harper's repeated attacks against the "separatist" backed Liberal-NDP coalition. But by using the heavily charged "separatist" term Mr. Harper has awakened a sleeping tiger. Nationalists are taking exception at being blamed for the turmoil in Parliament. While in French Mr. Harper uses the less pejorative term souverainistes, that hasn't stopped Quebec provincial Liberals from expressing fear that Mr. Harper's finger-pointing at "separatists" could anger enough nationalists to have an impact on the results of Monday's election.

Mr. Charest is aware that of the 1.3 million Quebeckers or 38 per cent of the province's voters who supported the Bloc Québécois in the Oct. 14, 2008, federal election are not all hard-nosed separatists. Many hold nationalist views and could react strongly against what is being perceived as Conservative Quebec-bashing, and harsh comments coming from Western Canada and elsewhere accusing the "separatists," through their support of the Liberal-NDP coalition, of attempting to "hijack" the Canadian government.

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Will Amir Khadir be able to win Mercier this time and usher in the entry of Québec solidaire in the National Assembly? (Recap: Khadir lost by only 1 123 votes in the 2007 election.)

Things seem to be aligning nicely... (crossing fingers)

A PQ electioneerer admitted in a call to a journalist from La Presse (oops...) that their "pointage" was showing Khadir in advance. QS's own tally shows similar results, I believe.

Robert Perreault, former PQ Minister and MNA for Mercier has expressed his support for the candidacy of Khadir!

This weekend's editorial in Le Devoir said that QS deserves to have its first MNA. Thanks for this utmost demonstration of magnanimity, Bernard... Still, it's better than a "claque s'a yeule"—we'll take it...

Meanwhile, the PQ and Marois herself are refusing to rule out a "coalition" with the Devil Dumont, parasitizing off what is happening in Ottawa. That eliminates the last vestige of superiority of the PQ over the Liberals as far as I'm concerned.

The only hope is QS, regardless of how many elections it takes for them to wield some influence.

No prospects of wins (except maybe for Gouin), but here are some of the more promising ridings for QS:

- Gouin (Françoise David's riding)

The PQ won by 3 408 votes in 2007 (PQ: 37% / QS: 26%). Sadly, I don't think Françoise will be able to eke out a win this time around, but she might reduce the difference to a thousand or so.

- Sainte-Marie—Saint-Jacques

Manon Massé got 14% of the vote in 2007, down from the 22% she obtained in QS's very first electoral outing, the 2006 by-election in Sainte-Marie—Saint-Jacques.

- Outremont

Sujata Dey got 9% in 2007. May Chiu, another former Bloc candidate (Amir Khadir once ran for the Bloc, also in Outremont...), represents QS in this election. Note that the provincial riding does not correspond exactly to the federal one.

QS' hopes probably hinge heavily on left-PQ voters accepting that the PQ has no chance of winning this time. I think that will sink in to at least some of them in the next day or so.

BTW, there was a rural Quebecois left-intellectual who was backing the ADQ in the last election in part, as I read it, because he didn't think that QS had enough interest in the needs of people who might support it but who lived in the regions, and who saw it as a basically Montreal-centric party. Has this guy(if anyone can remember his name)changed his allegiances this year, with the ADQ collapsing and the PQ not doing much more than moving back into second-place by default?

______________________________________________________________________________________________
Our Demands Most Moderate are/
We Only Want The World!
-James Connolly

Aim 7: Make Quebec a country [sic] by popular sovereignty:Quebec Solidaire wants to involve all Quebec in the attainment of our
national sovereignty. The engagement of the whole of the people in the
definition of our institutions and our social organization, is the
strategy that Quebec Solidaire proposes to lead us towards this country
to be built. For Quebec Solidaire, our project of society and our
project of country are closely bound, and democracy rests in the middle
of these two desires. Our step towards sovereignty will be done with
respect towards the indigenous nations."

QS party leader Amir Khadir also taunts the Parti Quebecois at one of his rallies by saying "We are the only ones still talking about sovereignty."

No thanks. I want a party with a coherent federalist program, or a reasonable facsimile thereof. I do not want to depend on the goodwill of a single riding candidate as recommended by some of the federalists on this board, progressive credentials notwithstanding. That's the trap of protest and strategic votes.

I live in a safe Liberal riding. Even the Greens didn't bother running. I could vote with my conscience, and again, this time I will. Seeing no options in my riding, I'll take a pass on this election.

Hear hear... Why settle for a single vote as a citizen when one can go on spouting the Truth about French Quebec and influencing hundreds, well maybe dozens, uh would you settle for 2 or 3? - on Babble...

Perhaps he's never heard the song "mon pays" or realise that Québécois, whether pro-independence or pro-federalism, talk about "le pays".
poor todd. He hates Québec so much that he is going to vote for a rightwing neoliberal party that steals poor kiddies' lunch money and eats kittens.

So far I'm happy - cautiously - about Amir and not even as cautiously about the rout of the xenophobic, reactionary ADQ. Remember that they started up all the demagogic "reasonable accomodation" stuff - and never presented a brief. Meltdown since then.
I do confess that I love the fact that our candidate who is leading now is not remotely "pure laine". Except in the Persian carpet sense.
I'm not down there - don't think the babble people know why except a couple I've PMed. Old babblers will remember Renzo, my incredible black half-Siamese cat. He went missing at Hallowe'en - scary time for black cats - and finally returned, very skinny, on the 6th of December.
So I'm mostly cuddling, hugging, feeding him, (other than working, of course). I can't bear to leave him.

I live in Gouin. Once upon a time, I lived in Mercier. It wasn't all of the Plateau then - the northern and less gentrified part - where I lived, east of Papineau and north of Laurier, was VERY working-class. I lived with another black half-Siamese (I have sort of a fixation on them, though I don't go looking for them) named Nadja.
Renzo is almost 13, so you can imagine how I was feeling. Not really into the elections.
Renzo was shivering with hunger, though it wasn't at all cold the day he returned. He did endure some below zero C days, though nothing like today. I think being outside today could have killed him, as he has practically no fat.
Unionist, I'm really happy both about May Chiu - my friends supporting her are mostly in the opposite end of that riding, in Mile End, though I do have a friend in CDN who was a MÉMO school commissioner (for non Montrealers, Mémo was the secular party that booted out the fundamentalist Catholics in the Catholic Montréal school board, and worked to eliminate confessional boards). I think she is in Outremont riding, though I'm not sure.

Surprising that there's only a 5-6% margin between the Liberals and the PQ, with the PQ currently over 50 seats, despite pre-election polls showing the Liberals with a double-digit lead. Fallout from Harper's Quebec bashing?

With almost half of the polling stations counted, Amir still has a small lead over Turp (about 500 votes; about 37,5% vs 33,5%). The most noteworthy observation to make is that the percentages of the two leading candidates have been relatively stable for a long time now.

josh, yes I do think that contributed to a resurgence of the PQ vote. A lot of people here deeply resent the Québec-bashing - remember that has roots in deep bigotry, almost racism, a couple of generations ago. And not just people who support Québec independence. Suspect a lot of what one calls "soft nationalists" voted PQ.
And in any case, it will be good to be rid of the ADQ, though I suppose there are rural/outlying region frustrations and what could be called "white working class" frustrations (though there are a lot of militant trade unionists here still, who tend to vote PQ and Bloc, some QS). They raised an ugly current of xenophobia and utterly false problems of "integration". The only real problems of integration here are access to the skilled and professional jobs immigrants were brought over to perform.
Me too, crossing fingers for Amir. Really important in the defence of public health care (and not using it as a means of speculation) among other things.
And in important news, Renzo is up and about and being a pain in the arse!

Surprising that there's only a 5-6% margin between the Liberals and the PQ, with the PQ currently over 50 seats, despite pre-election polls showing the Liberals with a double-digit lead. Fallout from Harper's Quebec bashing?

The PQ lost votes and seats to the ADQ under Boisclair and the momentary "reasonable accommodation" hysteria whipped up by the media. Now that sanity is returning (and Boisclair has gone back to finish his MBA or whatever - just kidding), most of those votes and seats are going back to the PQ. Nothing astonishing here.